‘Good God, woman, you are lying! you are lying!’

‘No, I ain’t a-lyin’.  She tookt to me the moment she clapped eyes on me; most people does, and them as don’t ought, an’ she got up an’ put her arms round my neck, and she called me “Knocker."’

‘Called you what?’

‘Ain’t I a-tellin’ you?  She called me “Knocker”; and that’s the very name as she allus called me up to the day of ’er death, pore dear!  I tried to make ‘er come along o’ me, an’ she wouldn’t stir, an’ so I left ‘er, meanin’ to go back; but when I got to my sister’s by marriage, there was a letter for me an’ it wur from Polly Onion, a-sayin’ as my pore Jenny died the same day as I left London, a-sayin’, “Mother, vi’lets, vi’lets; mother, vi’lets, vi’lets!” an’ was buried by the parish.  An’ that upset me, p’leaceman, an’ made me swownd, an’ when I comed to, I couldn’t hear nothink only my pore Jenny’s voice a-sobbin’ on the wind, “Mother, vi’lets, vi’lets; mother, vi’lets, vi’lets!” an’ that sent me off my ‘ead a bit, an’ I run out o’ the ‘ouse, an’ there was Jenny’s voice a-goin’ on before me a-sobbin’, “Mother, vi’lets, vi’lets; mother, vi’lets, vi’lets!” an’ it seemed to lead me back to the churchyard; an’ lo an’ be’old! there was the pore half-starved creatur’ a-settin’ there jist as I’d left ‘er, an’ I sez, “God bless you, my gal, you’re a-starvin’!” an’ she jumped up, an’ she comed an’ throwed ‘er arms round my waist, an’ there we stood both on us a-cryin’ togither, an’ then I runned back into Carnarvon, an’ fetched ‘er some grub, an’ she tucked into the grub.—­But hullo! p’leaceman, what’s up now?  What the devil are you a-squeedgin’ my ‘and like that for?  Are you a-goin’ to kiss it?  It ain’t none so clean, p’leaceman.  You’re the rummest copper in plain clothes ever I seed in all my born days.  Fust you seem as if you want to bite me, you looks so savage, an’ then you looks as if you wants to kiss me; you’ll make me laugh, I know you will, an’ that’ll make me cough.—­Hi!  Poll Onion, come ’ere.  Bring my best lookin’-glass out o’ my bowdore, an’ let me look at my ole chops, for I’m blowed if there ain’t a copper in plain clothes this time as is fell ’ead over ears in love with me, jist as the young swell did at the studero.’

‘Go on, Mrs. Gudgeon,’ I said; ‘go on.  She ate the food?’

‘Oh, didn’t she jist!  And the pore half-sharp thing took to me, an’ I took to she, an’ I thinks to myself, “She’s a purty gal, if she’s ever so stupid, an’ she’ll get ‘er livin’ a-sellin’ flowers o’ fine days, an’ a-doin’ the rainy-night dodge with baskets when it’s wet “; an’ so I took ‘er in, an’ in the street she’d all of a suddent bust out a-singin’ songs about Snowdon an’ sich like, just as if she was a-singin’ in a dream, and folk used to like to ’ear ‘er an’ gev ’er money; an’ I was a good mother to ‘er, I was, an’ them as sez I worn’t is cussed liars.’

‘And she never came to any harm?’ I said, holding the great muscular hands between my two palms, unwilling to let them go.  ’She never came to any harm?’